It's November 22 and you've got a big college basketball tournement in during Christmas week in December, about one month away. Oh, did I forget to mention, you're the coach of a college basketball team. Your guys have been working hard and have a good foundation in the fundamentals of the game. They're in good shape, but the tournament will be tough as it will bring the best teams from several conferences to NYC and the games will be held on the national stage that is Madison Square Garden. How are you going to prepare for the tournemant?
Questions we need to answer include;
How's our conditioning?
How are the guys fueling their workouts and games?
What areas do we need to work on?
Can we improve foul shooting by then?
Can we improve our zone defense by then?
Can we improve our perimeter shooting by then?
As the coach, you make an assessment about the competiton and begin to formulate an action plan to prepare the guys to win the tournement.
You do this by starting with the goal of winning and the date of the event and work backward.
You've got to have a team meeting and get the guys 'pumped up about the prospect of winning'. They have to believe that they can do it. The entire team has to be aligned and in the right mood. Then we set up our practices to achieve the goal. More foul shooting, more perimeter shooting, more conditioning work... all of it focused on the start of the tournement.
The week prior to the event, you begin a taper, that is, the guys have fun in practice, but you do not want to tax their bodies during practice. You've done that already, the week before the event is for having fun, staying fast and light but not for working too hard. It's called an active taper.
The day before the tournement you have a team meeting and bring in Willis Reed, a former chamion with the NY Knicks to speak with the guys about having heart and about leaving everything on the court. He talks about winning the NBA title on a bum leg and all your players are amazed and inspired.
Why not follow a similar approach in your business. Molloy clients do and here's how.
Once we've begun a formal coaching program with a client and the sales people, CSRs and managers have a relationship with our coaches it becomes very easy. First, the marketing manager declares that we are going to run a special offer during the week of ________. Usually they make these announcements far enough in advance so that we have time to prepare the 'team' for the big promotion.
Note: one of the most frustrating things for customers is when you call a company and ask about an advertised special only to have the CSR or sales person indicate through their speaking and actions, that they are ignorant about the special. I mean after all, the company is advertising the special and the sales person is clueless. What's that all about... but it happens every day.
Here's how we get a company ready for the big advertising spend and the launch of the new special.
First we learn all we can about the event. Next we work with the CSRs and sales people to create what we call 'foundation moves' or a simplistic way to speak about the special. Next we get together several time to practice speaking about the special. And finally, we mystery shop each of the stores before the launch date so that everyone is totally prepared.
All this happens very quickly and efficiently. In additon it's cost effective and it give everyone confidence that they are ready for the day when the big sale shows up. Most importantly it gives the advertising department and the owners the confidence that their staff is ready to convert sales prospects into customers. This point is critical, because without that confidence they are likely to hold back on spending ad dollars to promote the new special. At the same time, when they know that their team is ready and competent, the marketing department is looking for more money to invest in promtions.
This process is absolutely no different than the approach you would take as the coach of the team, except that most companies never do it. Sure they may have a meeting and talk about the special, but without practicing the 'foundation moves' in advance, they won't be ready when the 'game is on'. A successful team has been practicing in such a way that the company special lives in their bones and is part of their world before the special day (tournement) arrives.
We call it the Molloy Process... simple... yet very effective.
Till next time.
Regards
Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment